Asia Cup 2018: Who should play in the final - Dinesh Karthik or KL Rahul?
India's winning streak ended on Tuesday as Afghanistan pulled off an unbelievable tie in their last match of Asia Cup 2018. At one stage India was none down for 110, yet it landed to 7 needed off the last over with one wicket in hand.
Thanks to a boundary by Ravindra Jadeja, India were able to tie the scores before Rashid Khan scalped the last wicket with one run required off two balls. India though had rested five of their major players in the match, in order to, both, keep them fit for the final and give other players in the squad an opportunity.
Skipper for the tour Rohit Sharma was also rested, which gave MS Dhoni an opportunity to lead the side for the 200th time in ODIs. Interestingly, this match gave rise to a few selection headaches for the Indian team management.
KL Rahul, who was playing his first match of the tournament, played a fine knock of 60 runs, making his case stronger. His exclusion from the team was already questioned by former Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly.
Now the challenge arises for the team management that how should they draft him in the team, as openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been doing pretty well at the top. The only place that seems to be under the hammer is that of Dinesh Karthik.
The wicket-keeper batsman has been played as a middle-order batsman in the tournament but wasn't able to catch many chances with India finishing most games early.
So to sort who among the two should play the final of Asia Cup, we bring you some numbers that might give us the answer.
Dinesh Karthik
The Tamil Nadu cricketer has scored 33, 31*, 1* and 44 in the four innings of Asia Cup. Numbers show that he has remained unbeaten twice while contributed with cameos couple of times, indicating he has had an average tourney.
The overall ODI stats of Karthik are 1626 runs in 85 matches at an average 30.67 average, under the strike rate of 73.21. He made his debut way too early but was recently brought back to the side due to consistent good run in domestic cricket.
KL Rahul
The 26 years old KL Rahul usually plays as an opener in limited overs cricket but can play in the middle order as well. He scored 60 odd runs in the only match he played in Asia Cup so far.
A below average display of batting in England was overshowed in the last match of the tour in which he scored a big hundred. He carried that form into yesterday's match as well.
His ODI stats read 13 matches, 317 runs, 35.22 average, 80.66 strike rate, which is slightly better than Karthik.
Karthik or KL in the final?
Summing up the recent form and overall numbers, it is quite visible that KL Rahul should be given the upper hand against Bangladesh in the final of Asia Cup.